Originally Posted by chollie

Gotta love all these phony assurances that TSA didn't make any changes. More lies and distortions by the media and a disgruntled small minority of pax, I guess.

Going through the checkpoint at ORD yesterday. I dump everything in bins and on the belt and head for the WTMD. Young male TSO asks if my pockets are empty. I say 'yes' and he tells me to 'step this way' (NoS). I say "I'll have to opt out". He looks at a fellow TSO standing next to the WTMD. The second TSO shrugs. The first TSO says (says, not barks), 'OK, go on' and points to the WTMD.

That was it. No grope.

Interestingly enough, it was very slow. Four male pax ahead of me, all of whom went through the WTMD (no one in NoS during that time). I (middle-aged woman) got selected for NoS. More randomness, I guess.

I don't think it's just that the male TSOs don't like doing the grope (except maybe on kids) because they are afraid they'll get clobbered sooner or later, so the elderly and women are more likely to get randomly selected.

I think it's also that more male TSOs dislike groping other men and are willing to balk at doing so. I don't think the women like doing it either, but I suspect they aren't quite as grossed out about it.

Certainly conversations about this with friends/family lead me to think this is so. The guys uniformly react with horror at the idea of having to touch another guy's 'junk' or rear. The women don't relish it either, but there doesn't seem to be a feminine equivalent of homophobia.